Review: Design of Low-Cost Portable Ultrasound Systems

Jonathan Baran and John G. Webster , Member, IEEE

Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Abstract
Ultrasound continues to be one of the major imaging modalities used for the diagnosis and
treatment of a number of medical conditions. Therefore emphasis on innovation is
continually increasing the quality of the ultrasound systems. However focus is just beginning
to shift into the low-cost and portable applications of ultrasound. These systems present
interesting constraints which must be considered to transform a standalone system into a
portable version. This review takes a look at some of the attempts which have been
published, as well as some of the issues which have still yet to be resolved. In conclusion,
low-cost portable ultrasound has the capability to be developed and commercialized, but
until a suitable replacement to piezoelectric crystals has been developed (possibly CMUTs?)
low-cost portable ultrasound system will be held back by the high cost burden associated
with the cost of piezoceramics.

Need
The creation of a low-cost, portable ultrasound system to be
implemented in emerging countries, military operations, and
emergency situations.

Transducer Design
A. Current Problem

Current array designs put strict limitations on PCB layouts. When

low-cost, portable applications are developed there is difficulty
shrinking designs while still maintaining functionality.
B. Solution

Girard et al at the University of Virginia [3] developed a low - cost

method for the creation of a printed circuit board (PCB) to facilitate
1024 surface pads for each element. A gold plated polyester sheet
covered all 1024 transducers to complete the connection. Due to the
PCB traces that crossed over each other, crosstalk was a large portion
of the overall signal. However this design was sufficient to generate a
proof of concept.
Eames et al [5] furthered the work by Girard et al at the University of
Virginia with the creation of a 60 x 60 (3600 element) transducer
array. Eames et al looked to improve transducer design by creating
3600 straight through holes. The design resulted in a slightly lower
resonance frequency of the piezoceramics than was anticipated,
probably due to the element thickness.

Capacitive micro - machined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) hold

the promise of dramatically reducing the cost associated with
ultrasonic transducers along with providing revolutionary advances in
current technology. Oralkan et al [6] was the first to present a pulse echo phased array B - scan sector image using 128 CMUT elements in
a 1D transducer array.

Transmit Circuitry
A. Current Problem

Traditional ultrasound systems rely on high voltages and currents to drive the
piezoelectric transducers.

Solutions
(Left) Sonic Window developed by Fuller et al from the University of
Virginia. Low-cost ultrasound system developed to perform a C-scan.
(Top-Right) Siemens next generation portable machine. (Bottom-Right)
Portable USB which connects to a smartphone (Prof. Richard U of
Washington-St. Louis)

B. Solution

Owen et al [8] has developed a 12 lb plug - in class D switch mode amplifier to

drive single element high intensity focused ultrasound transducers. The system
provided 140 W of acoustic energy to a 70% efficient PZT transducer. Owen et al
concluded their device was comparable to available commercial applications.
According to Lewis et al [9] the majority of ultrasound drivers and RF amplifiers
are generally built with an output impedance of 50 ohms. In order to obtain the
maximum power transfer matching circuitry must be used to transfer power to the
transducer. However, in matching impedances which are generally complex,
systems incur additional costs and complexity. Lewis et al worked to develop driving
circuitry with an output impedance of 0.3 ohms which transferred power with 95
% efficiency to the transducer.

Beamforming Algorithm
A. Current Problem

Traditional ultrasound systems rely on sophisticated DSP algorithms. Since lowcost, portable applications are unable to perform this algorithms, new methods
need to be developed.
B. Solution

Traditionally three different methods were used to implement a time delay. 1) RF

modulation onto an intermediate frequency [12]. 2) Upsampling the incoming
signal using an interpolation filter [13]. 3) Nonuniform sampling of the RF signal
according to the needed time delay.
Freeman et al [11] corrected this problem with the creation of the Delta - Sigma
Oversampled ultrasound beamformer. This method, now serves as one of the best
low - cost beamforming options available.
Ranganathan et al [14] looked to further develop beamforming algorithms by
reducing the image quality for a large tradeoff in cost. The goal was to determine
the simplest beamforming algorithm which yielded image quality, thus developing
the direct sampled I/Q (DSIQ) algorithm.

Acknowledgements
We thank the UW-Madison BME department and the MEDECAL
Laboratory for their support and guidance.

References
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